LONG TIME NO SEA FOR FRUSTRATED CARDIFF BOOSTER

After receiving his new driver’s license, Dane Kuta decided he’d had enough. He fired off an email to the DMV and copied nine elected officials as well as his local newspaper.

“I live in Cardiff by the Sea,” Kuta declared. “Because this name is longer than typical city names and composed of multiple words, it is, unfortunately, often abbreviated to simply ‘Cardiff.’

“I understand that space may be an issue,” the defense industry engineer went on, “but there are plenty of city names in California that are long. Half Moon Bay, Huntington Beach, Lake of the Woods, San Juan Capistrano, Valley of Enchantment. Do you abbreviate these?

“Cardiff by the Sea is the name of my domicile recognized by the United States Postal Service. The full name is printed on my U.S. passport, San Diego County tax records, utility bills and even prominently displayed on the exterior of the local branch of the post office. I am an 11-year homeowner in Cardiff by the Sea and my family and I never plan on leaving this town we love and support. I live BY THE SEA and am proud of it!”

Kuta closed with a request that the DMV immediately correct the error in its database.

Kuta’s letter poses three questions: What is the historically accurate name of the charming Encinitas town north of the San Elijo Lagoon? Is the common one-word name ever acceptable? And, specifically, should the DMV be ashamed of failing to print the “real” name on licenses?

Let’s start with a quick bit of history.

The place known as San Elijo was first plotted and developed by J. Frank Cullen in 1911. Cullen’s wife hailed from Wales and encouraged her husband to name the new community after the seaport city of her birth.

However, the nostalgic Mrs. Cullen appears not to have said, “Frank, darling, let’s dub your charming hamlet Cardiff-by-the-Sea.” No, she seems to have pitched the unadorned Cardiff.

To get the “by-the-sea” story, I called Irene Kratzer, the unsinkable local historian whose email address begins “Camillebythesea.”

According to Kratzer, a Cardiff musician named Victor Kramer was so taken with the 1914 hit song “By the Sea” that he succeeded in linking the seductive phrase to the city’s name.

Kratzer concedes that local Realtors were no doubt pleased by the romantic filigree attached to the naked Cardiff.

It’s perhaps worth noting that Carmel, the elegantly bohemian enclave north of Big Sur, was known simply as Carmel well into the 1890s until a shrewd realtor came up with Carmel-by-the-Sea for a promotional postcard. That’s the come-hither name adopted when the city incorporated.

So the answer to the first question is simple. The correct name is Cardiff-by-the-Sea, though it wasn’t always so. (By the way, the hyphenated form is the most common; Kuta, in his letter to the DMV, went with four separate words, which replicates the local post office’s sign.)

Now, as to the question of how casual Cardiffians and outsiders ought to be, I’d say they should reflect the laid-back culture of the town. Do we really need to say Cardiff-by-the-Sea beach? (Tellingly, the local Mainstreet Association goes with Cardiff in its name.)